The Long Lost

by Rebecca Woods

Larcen bowed and left the room without a word. As the door clicked behind her, the Queen turned and looked at me with fire in her eyes.

  “No one is to know about the staff of evil Auriana”. The words were a command and one I had no intention of disobeying.

  “Did you know” began Khalashaya before the soft white hand of the Queen stopped him from talking.

  “Yes”.

  The Queen had known about the stick, had she known about how the Eurikaya had been created?

  “I did know Auriana”. She breathed out and put her head into her hands. She looked far less regal when she did that, but it was a gesture she did a lot.

  “Every Queen since the exodus of the Long Lost has been entrusted with the secret”.

  I had to ask the question:

  "Why does no one know?"

  She rounded on me, the words sounding angry and harsh even though they were whispered.

  "Do you think I will let this happen again to my people? We are not the Gleema, with their disgust for magic as if it is a disease. However, keeping it secret was for the greater good. Do you think I want my people corrupted by Ericl’s evil once more?".

  The Gleema, they knew. This was the reason they had tortured and killed so many magical Falaira. They saw people with magic and saw the Eurikaya once more. Every young Falaira casting a spell was potentially a new Ericl, pushing their powers beyond the light and into the dark realm.

  "I understand" I said, not looking at her but at Khalashaya, had he known? A glance at his face told him he had not.

  There was something there though, under the skin, something he wasn't telling me.

  "Tell me" I said, our connection betraying his knowledge.

  He breathed deeply.

  "Do you remember our time in the Gleema city, when we were using our free time to investigate the Gleema?"

  I did, the memory of being eavesdropped on still made me rather angry.

  He gave me a little smile and I pushed the feeling away.

  I nodded. "Go on".

  "Well, Mother and I were able to physically explore the main council building by altering our appearances. Doing this was very useful because we found out how deep their magical hatred went."

  That sounded ominous. What was there? More prisoners? Worse dungeons than the ones Khalashaya and his mother had been buried alive in?

  "They have a hidden floor in the main council building. The one we lived in for that whole time. I'm amazed that I didn't sense it until I was very close by. It's very very well hidden. The Falaira who hid it was very powerful indeed".

  The Queen looked at him, anticipation mixing with horror in her expression.

  "Tell me, what was on that floor?"

  I never found out. I only found the hidden entrance the night Auriana made her stand against Gleema Dan. And don't apologise" he addressed that last bit to me.

  The Gleema hated magic, they despised and feared anyone who even had the potential to use it, why would they then have a magically hidden floor in their main office building.

  "No" he said, cutting into the thoughts he had probably read. "Whole groups of them walked by and didn't even see or sense it. Most of them have no idea it is even there."

  I looked at the Queen and tried to sense what was going on in her mind. She was impenetrable as always, that was one mind I had never been able to read.

  Then she turned to me.

  “I thought the Eurikayl was lost since the dark times. I have often considered sending a team to search for it, for fear it would get into the wrong hands again one day”.

  “What stopped you?” said Khalashaya.

  She breathed deeply and seemed to choose her next words very carefully, a bead of sweat broke ranks and started to run down the side of her face.

  “Are they on their way?” she said to him. He looked confused for a second and then nodded.

  A second later, the room was filled with a lot of familiar faces - Prenaslavka who smiled at me when she came in, clearly having thawed to me since our discussion, and the main group that had joined us in the Gleema city as well as Larcen, Raven and the rest of the soldiers. Woodarch loped in last, his handsome face bright with anticipation. I heard lots of quick muttering as the group wondered why they had been summoned.

  The Queen stood up, her beautiful face hard with concentration, the muttering stopped quickly.

  “We must keep this secret, Can I rely on you all to tell no one, not even your closest friends and family of what we are about to discuss?”

  Shocked nods and exclamations of assent came from everyone, Woodarch smiled his wry smile and Khalashaya took my hand underneath the table we sat at. I found I liked his touch and found it comforting.

  “Now it might be time to use all of that training” he said in my head.

  “Are we going to find the stick - the Eurikayl”

  “It looks like it”.

  “Friends” said the Queen. “I have known for a long time that this day would come, either in my lifetime or in the lifetime of the next Queen of the Free Falaira. I believe we have located the position of an artefact so dangerous that to have it fall into the wrong hands could see the return of the dark days themselves”.

  “What is this artefact?” gasped Prenaslavka. “What could be so dangerous?”

  The Queen looked at me. I looked back at her for a second or two before realising what she was asking me to do.

  I cleared my throat and tried to ignore the apprehension in my stomach.

  “It is a stick” I said, wishing my voice sounded braver. I steeled myself and looked around at the others, they were watching me intently, some with barely concealed suspicion.

  “It is a stick used by the original Eurikaya” I said. I caught the glance of the Queen as I finished my sentence and realised that she would not want everyone to know the whole story, just the bits they needed to know. This was a relief, I did not relish the idea of discussing my experience with the Eurikaya in the forest in front of Woodarch and Prenaslavka; both of whom had been friends of late but initially wary of me.

  “Used for what?” said Woodarch, “And how is it you have so much knowledge”.

  I looked at Khalashaya. He kept his face neutral but I felt warmth coming from him.

  “Auriana’s dreams have become much more vivid” he said. “It is not difficult to connect the various dots and get the idea”.

  “And why is it you alone are having these dreams?” the voice came from Raven, the soldier. Her green eyes bored into me and I stared back. I would not be intimidated any further.

  “I do not know Raven” I said. “Would you all like to hear what I have to say?”

  I looked at the Queen who nodded at me and held up a hand to Raven.

  “The Eurikayl is a dangerous object used by the Eurikaya. It was thought lost until now”.

  There were excited mutters from the group.

  “How has this come to light?” said Woodarch slowly.

  “That is irrelevant” said the Queen sharply. “You will listen to Auriana and then Khalashaya. I will then tell you what our plan of attack should be”.

  Silence ensued and I gulped.

  “The Eurikayl is a deadly object, something that terrifies me even to speak of it. I have seen it in my dreams since I was a small child. I did not realise until I had my latest vision that I was seeing an important artefact”.

  I paused for breath and then carried on.

  “I expect you are all wondering how and why I have been having visions and also wondering why you should believe them. What I can say is that the woman who gave me her memories was a very trusted friend of mine, though I knew her but for a short time”.

  The Queen was nodding her head and looking somewhat sad. Khalashaya squeezed my hand again.

  “The visions were of her own inherited memories. These memories told me how the Eurikaya came to be. It did not tell us how to destroy them, but we can make the logical assumption that this artefact, once used to bring t
hem up, could be used to send them away forever and stop a second war from being started”.

  “Basically” said Khalashaya, “We think the Eurikayl is hidden in the Gleema city, in a room hidden from the populace using magic. We do not know why the Gleema saw it fit to violate their own sacred laws and use magic to protect whatever is in there; we do know however, that the vast majority of the people living in that city do not know that the hidden floor exists”.

  “Gleema Dan” said Prenaslavka slowly, her face horrified. “If we can assume that not even the council are aware of this room, then it must be her. There was such a ring of evil around her”.

  Gleema Dan, I remembered the hatred and malevolence that had emanated from her. She must have hated having the Free Falaira in the building but not been able to truly express why.

  Murmurs and whispers started again and the Queen raised a hand.

  “We need you. We need you to go and get the Eurikayl”.

  A Mission

  The group started at the Queen in shock.

  Prenaslavka was the first to start speaking.

  “I’m in”. Her mouth was a thin hard line but fire glittered in her eyes. I was once again reminded that I would not want to be on the receiving end of her wrath.

  Woodarch stepped forward.

  “So am I. If this Eurikayl is the key to stopping the Eurikaya then we need to get it”.

  Slowly, everyone else stepped forward and declared their allegiance.

  “Right” said the Queen, “let’s plan this properly. I’ve got a strange feeling about this Gleema Dan”.

  We got together and worked on a plan, little by little it seemed to come together until The Queen yawned and bid we stop for the night.

  The room cleared until it was just Khalashaya, the Queen and I left.

  She came over and touched my face in the Falairan way.

  “We’re counting on you. Don’t let us down.” The words were stern but the warmth in her smile was not.

  “I will not let you down,” I said.

  She touched my hand, we were just standing there for a few seconds, her soft touch on my skin. She looked me in the eye and smiled again, something sad in her face.

  “I am so glad I got to meet you”. Her smile faded and there was just sadness in her eyes. “Whatever happens with the mission, we have been privileged to know and love you”.

  She turned and swept from the room suddenly.

  I looked at Khalashaya, he looked surprised.

  “We have a chance of succeeding do we not?” I said.

  He looked past me, as if deep in thought.

  “Don’t we?” I said. “They don’t have magic, we do!”

  He then looked at me.

  “They despise magic. Magic to a Gleema is like a burning a bible in front of a Defender”.

  Not even the changes of the last couple of months stopped my years of indoctrination from rearing their ugly head. I put my hand to my mouth and gasped.

  “That is blasphemy indeed. Why then would they have a magically hidden floor”.

  Khalashaya looked pensive. He went over to the door and closed it.

  He came and sat back down at the table and wiped his long hair out of his face. He looked hot and bothered.

  Looking up at me, he opened his mouth to speak and then closed it again.

  “What” I said.

  “I’ve often wondered if the Gleema would ever have kept some magic of their own in order to not be vulnerable against any of the free Falaira who might have a grudge against them. Before our stay in the Gleema city, I would have dismissed this idea based on the fact that magic is taboo to these people. Now?”

  He shook his head.

  “It’s been bothering me since we left. Watching Gleema Dan interrogate you as well as my theory about the hidden floor made me realise that we were potentially dealing with a threat. She is a dangerous woman.”

  “But she hated the thought of magic, she could barely even talk to me without her disgust coming through. Why would she be using magic? It makes no sense to be Khalashaya, no sense at all”.

  He changed tack.

  “Go to sleep now. You’ve been through a lot tonight”.

  He smiled at me.

  “We will find out everything tomorrow when we attack”.

  “But how are we going to get into this hidden floor in the first place? If you couldn’t get in, how will I?”

  He looked pensive again but held out his hand, I took it and we walked out of the room together. Walking me to the house, he hugged me all of a sudden. It was a much longer embrace than I had ever had and it comforted me.

  This man, this strange otherworldly man who had crossed universes to find me, had been the best friend I had ever had. No, he was the only friend I had ever had. He had saved my life and looked after me. I rested my head against his chest and enjoyed the feelings that rose up inside me.

  I still felt the familiar feelings of shame and disgust whenever I was offered affection by a man, no matter how innocent. However, Khalashaya always seemed to remove that as soon as his hand found mine.

  He released me from the embrace and I looked up at him. The moonlight shone, reflected in his green eyes.

  Like the Queen earlier, his fingers found my face; as soon as his skin connected with mine I felt my arm rising to do the same thing.

  Then he was walking away quickly and my eyes were prickling.

  Once in bed, I thought I would have trouble sleeping after the experiences I had had, but I was off within seconds of my head touching the soft cool pillow.

  The Fight

  There was knocking at my door what seemed like a few minutes later. I knew it was him before I answered and saw him on the other side of the door. Leaving him in the corridor, I dressed and put on a thin cloak. Deloran had a very hot climate but the nights were much cooler.

  Why had he summoned me now? I left the room and was greeted by Khalashaya who was leaning against the wooden wall. He did not smile at me but grabbed my hand and started walking.

  “Keep quiet” he said in my head. “Walk quietly, we do not want to wake Larcen, Raven and the rest of the Queen’s guard.”

  “But tomorrow we are acting on her orders”.

  We started walking down the long flight of steps that would take us to the floor of the forest. This unnerved me even more. Why were we leaving the city?

  “These are her orders, I am obeying them.”.

  I was confused but said no more. If the Queen had said that this was to be then I accepted it, I just wish I had been privy to the instruction. I would have liked to have had a little more sleep. I was still very shaky from what I had seen in the dream forest and would have appreciated some time to think my way around that and what it meant. However, at least I was not on my own worrying about it.

  I had been yearning for a chance to prove to my people that I was one of them and that I could be trusted. It looked like this was going to be my opportunity.

  We walked down the steps, by now I was used to the power of the Orb as we got nearer it, but it did still make me feel a little lightheaded.

  As we got to the bottom of the tree and my feet touched the forest floor, I felt very awake all of a sudden. The ground was springy and there was a lovely earthy smell I did not realise I had missed living so high above the ground. Two cloaked figures stood in front of me, one was small and one was unmistakably Woodarch. A tendril of blonde hair escaped the hood of the smaller person’s cloak and I realised with a jolt that I was looking at our Queen.

  They turned and started walking without a word. We walked in the direction of where Gleema Leeh was buried. I took the lead from the others and put my hood up to cover my face. That was at least something I was experienced in.

  We walked for around ten minutes until we had passed the grave and reached the lake. What a stunning sight it was; the stars, the twinkling lights of other worlds had come out in their droves to wish us luck, shining diamonds where other magic
al people lived. Had Gleema Leeh not said that the Gleema could sense their magic?

  It seemed like the entire galaxy, whatever galaxy we were in, was out tonight as well as its sparkling doppelganger on the surface of the lake.

  We had walked a little way around the perimeter of the lake when The Queen stopped and lowered her hood.

  “No bird tonight. We cannot be seen by anyone in the city”.